WATCH: Waiting for her man charged over stabbing

by r33irby

Ross Irby
Reporter
Reporter Ross Irby has wander-lust mixed with a sense of adventure, spending way too many years roaming about Australia, its back roads and off-shore foreign lands.
Enjoys a yarn, story telling and tales, along with curiosity to find out about the lives and (mis)adventures of others.
An off-beat sense of humour, not taking it all too seriously, along with big doses of flexibility/adaptability whatever the situation is the best way to go.
You have to have the life experiences to have empathy...

Stabbing accused:
Robert Jamie Cleland was granted bail on January 25.

A WILD Sunday street brawl in Barney Point where a hockey stick and metal bar were wielded and a Gladstone man was stabbed, erupted after the stabbed man allegedly punched the accused man's defacto partner in the face.

Gladstone Magistrates Court heard police facts of the violence in a successful bail application made by Robert Jamie Cleland, who is charged with stabbing Peter Wilson with a multi-purpose tool.

Police said the man received a stab wound puncturing his lung and was in intensive care at Rockhampton Hospital.

Cleland, 45, is charged with affray, and causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Wilson, 47, in Barney Point at 11am on Sunday January 24.

Prosecutor Sgt Barry Stevens opposed bail and told magistrate Penelope Hay that Cleland's defacto had first been punched in the face at a house in Barney Point and the injured man (Mr Wilson) would face charges on that and from his alleged actions afterwards.

Sgt Stevens said when Cleland's partner was punched and fell to the ground Cleland grabbed a hockey stick from his car but the other man left.

The pair leaving court.

He said Cleland and the woman drove off but as they turned a corner down the street were confronted by the man holding a metal bat who then struck Cleland through the open side window.

Sgt Stevens said Cleland chased after the man with the hockey stick but dropped it and the second man is accused of repeatedly hitting him with the bat before being stabbed. Cleland, a car detailer, had a multi-purpose tool and is alleged to have slashed the victim's arm and stabbed him in the chest.

A person at a nearby house shot mobile phone footage of the street fracas on the corner of Friend and Barney streets which was shown in court. "So the victim has instigated the violence," Ms Hay asked, with Sgt Stevens saying the question was whether what Cleland then did had been reasonable.

Defence lawyer Cassandra Ditchfield said there was a clear issue of self defence.

She said that on the question of fleeing, Cleland says "He has got longer legs than me, he can run faster".

Ms Ditchfield said he could not have been expected "to expose himself to that risk" with his back turned if the other person had a weapon.

Ms Hay said there was a strong prima-facie case but she would give bail as Cleland has strong family ties to Gladstone and that the matters had not been initiated by him.

"I am satisfied he is not a risk of committing further offences," she said.

Cleland received bail on condition he have no contact with the victim or got to Barney Point, the case adjourned to late March.